Former deputy Tom Fallis indicted in wife Ashley Fallis' 2012 murder

A grand jury has indicted Thomas Fallis, a former Weld County Sheriff's deputy, in the murder of his wife nearly three years ago.

KMGH

A grand jury has indicted a former Weld County Sheriff's deputy in the murder of his wife nearly three years ago.

KMGH

A grand jury has indicted a former Weld County Sheriff's deputy in the murder of his wife nearly three years ago.

KMGH

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Picture of Ashley Fallis from her online obituary.

WELD COUNTY, Colo. - A grand jury has indicted a former Weld County Sheriff's deputy in the murder of his wife nearly three years ago.

The grand jury indicted Thomas Fallis, 34, on two felony charges of murder in the death of his wife in 2012.

Fallis was arrested Tuesday morning in Bloomington, Indiana, on a Colorado warrant. He's being held without bond in the Monroe County Correction Center and now faces extradition to Colorado.

Tom Fallis had moved to Indiana with the couples' three young children.

The indictment alleges that Fallis shot and killed his wife, Ashley Fallis, during an argument after a New Year's Eve party at their Zinfandel Street home in Evans in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2012.

According the indictment, Tom Fallis became angry when he heard his wife say was going outside to "have a smoke," and he believed she was going to smoke marijuana.

After a heated argument with another woman at the party, Tom Fallis began yelling and stormed into the master bedroom, slamming the door behind him, the indictment said.

All the guests, including Ashley's parents, left the house after Tom Fallis' blew up. But the couple continued to argue in the master bedroom.

The indictment states that Tom Fallis grabbed a 9mm handgun and, during a struggle, "held the gun to the right side of Ashley's head and pulled the trigger."

"While still in contact with Ashley, he lowered Ashley to the floor, began holding her head, and called 911 to report that Ashley shot her self in the head," the indictment states. The 911 call was made at 12:50 p.m. Ashley Fallis was formally pronounced dead about three hours later.

Her death was originally ruled a suicide, but Evans Police chief Rick Brandt told 7NEWS in April that new information had surfaced about an officer involved in the original investigation.

"This new information includes allegations from witness accounts that we were previously unaware of," Brandt said. "Specifically, the allegations say that the officer omitted material statements from witnesses and that he changed at least one statement of a key witness in the case to support the conclusion of suicide."

"The one glaring piece of evidence that never made it into their reports is that there was a neighbor that very specifically has said from the very beginning and continues to say to this day that he overheard Tom Fallis admitting to his parents that he shot and killed his wife," said Dan Recht, attorney for Ashley Fallis' parents.

When asked if any "people of interest," including Tom Fallis, who was a Weld County sheriff's deputy at the time, received preferential treatment during the investigation, Brandt said, "I can tell you that no person was handled with any kind of preferential treatment regardless of their position in the community or anywhere else when we were conducting our investigation."

Brandt said the case was thoroughly and properly investigated, but that the new information requires the case be reopened.

In a news conference in April, Ashley Fallis' family accused Evans Police Detective Michael Yates of covering up the murder by changing witnesses’ testimony and omitting key evidence in reports. Read more about the family's allegations here.